Daily Archives: December 12, 2020

Lingering, Like a Bad Smell

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Trump is throwing a Pity Party for the Ages on Twitter today. See also Imploding MAGA World Turns to Civil War Fantasies, Secession After Supreme Court Disaster. I understand Milo Yiannopoulos had a psychotic break on Parler.

And the Proud Boys have showed up in force in Washington, DC.

The leader of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, claimed to have been invited to the White House. The White House says Tarrio just took the public tour.

Trump swears he will fight on.  According to CNN, “Before the high court rejected his bid Friday, his campaign announced a cable ad buy to further his fraudulent claims about the election, and he clearly intends to try and meddle in Congress’ counting of the Electoral College results in January.” According to several reports, Melania wants to go home and is packing, already.

The Electoral College votes on Monday.

Trump, of course, is using the chaos to raise money and establish a post-presidential role for himself in the Republican Party. What the Republican Party is getting out of the deal isn’t clear. And we need to give serious thought about the 126 Republican members of Congress (listed at the end of this post) and the 18 state attorneys general who signed on to the embarassing Texas court challenge of other states’ elections.

The suit amounted to a loaded gun at the head of our democracy, said Chris Hayes.

If there is one potential silver lining to this sorry episode of U.S. history, it’s that a considerable portion of the political and media establishment is publicly recognizing that the Republican Party is no longer acting on behalf of the United States.

No one expressed this better than former Republican political consultant Steve Schmidt: “The Republican Party is an organized conspiracy for the purposes of maintaining power for self-interest, and the self-interest of its donor class.”

See also Paul Waldman, who writes that hatred of liberals is all that’s left of conservatism.

The Republican Party has proved that its hatred of liberals is so foundational that it will abandon any pretense of commitment to democracy, if democracy allows for the possibility that liberals might win an election. They have come to regard Democratic voters as essentially undeserving of having their will translated into power, no matter how large their numbers.  …

… Forget all that inspiring talk about the genius of the Framers and their vision for democracy; if having an election means that the people we hate might win, then the election must simply be nullified.

David Graham, The Atlantic:

Instead of Republican officeholders waiting out Trump’s postelection tantrum, he is waiting them out, and slowly bringing the party around to his side. In this way, Trump is ending his presidency just the way he won it: by correctly recognizing what Republican voters want and giving it to them, and gradually forcing the party’s purported leaders to follow along.

This embrace of the president’s attempt to overturn the results of the election is both shocking and horrifying. As Trump’s fraud claims and legal cases have steadily failed, the arguments he has pursued have become more outlandish and absurd, and they have also become more disturbing. Many Republican voters agree, and in refusing to stand up to him and them, Republican officials have gone from coddling a sore loser to effectively abandoning democracy.

It has to be said that most of the characters perpetrating this atrocity are not political newbies, but have been visible parts of the national politcal landscape for many years. For example, Texas GOP Chair Allen West, who in effect called for states won by Trump to secede yesterday, had already been clanking around in the GOP for quite some time before Trump became POTUS.

And this happened:

Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) on Friday urged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to refuse to seat any of the 126 Republican House members who signed an amicus brief supporting a lawsuit aimed at overturning the results of the presidential election.

I don’t expect anything to come of this, but Rep. Pascrell is right to call for some kind of consequences for the failure of the 126 to abide by their oath to uphold the Constitution. I suggest the 126 be required to complete some kind of Reconstruction program before they can be seated in the House again. This might include a remedial course in the critical role of elections in a democracy and a deprogramming from the Trump cult.

Here are the members of Congress who signed on to the Texas suit.

Alabama

Rep. Gary Palmer, Fifth Congressional District

Rep. Mo Brooks, Fifth Congressional District

Rep. Bradley Byrne, First Congressional District

Rep. Robert Aderholt, Fourth Congressional District

Arizona

Rep. Andy Biggs, Fifth Congressional District

Rep. Debbie Lesko, Eighth Congressional District

Arkansas

Rep. Rick Crawford, First Congressional District

Rep. Bruce Westerman, Fourth Congressional District

California

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, 23rd Congressional District

Rep. Ken Calvert, 42nd Congressional District

Rep. Doug LaMalfa, First Congressional District

Rep. Tom McClintock, Fourth Congressional District

Colorado

Rep. Ken Buck, Fourth Congressional District

Rep. Doug Lamborn, Fifth Congressional District

Florida

Rep. Matt Gaetz, First Congressional District

Rep. Ted Yoho, Third Congressional District

Rep. Gus Bilirakis, 12th Congressional District

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, 25th Congressional District

Rep. John Rutherford, Fourth Congressional District

Rep. Daniel Webster, 11th Congressional District

Rep. Michael Waltz, Sixth Congressional District

Rep. Ross Spano, 15th Congressional District

Rep. Neal Dunn, Second Congressional District

Georgia

Rep. Doug Collins, Ninth Congressional District

Rep. Rick W. Allen, 12th Congressional District

Rep. Earl Carter, First Congressional District

Rep. Drew Ferguson, Third Congressional District

Rep. Austin Scott, Eighth Congressional District

Idaho

Rep. Russ Fulcher, First Congressional District

Rep. Mike Simpson, Second Congressional District

Illinois

Rep. Mike Bost, 12th Congressional District

Rep. Darin LaHood, 18th Congressional District

Indiana

Rep. James Baird, Fourth Congressional District

Rep. Jim Banks, Third Congressional District

Rep. Trey Hollingsworth, Ninth Congressional District

Rep. Greg Pence, Sixth Congressional District

Rep. Jackie Walorski, Second Congressional District

Iowa

Rep. Steve King, Fourth Congressional District

Kansas

Rep. Ron Estes, Fourth Congressional District

Rep. Roger Marshall, First Congressional District

Louisiana

Rep. Steve Scalise, First Congressional District

Rep. Mike Johnson, Fourth Congressional District

Rep. Ralph Abraham, Fifth Congressional District

Rep. Clay Higgins, Third Congressional District

Maryland

Rep. Andy Harris, First Congressional District

Michigan

Rep. Jack Bergman, First Congressional District

Rep. Bill Huizenga, Second Congressional District

Rep. Tim Walberg, Seventh Congressional District

Rep. John Moolenaar, Fourth Congressional District

Minnesota

Rep. Tom Emmer, Sixth Congressional District

Rep. Jim Hagedorn, First Congressional District

Mississippi

Rep. Michael Guest, Third Congressional District

Rep. Trent Kelly, First Congressional District

Missouri

Rep. Sam Graves, Sixth Congressional District

Rep. Vicky Hartzler, Fourth Congressional District

Rep. Jason Smith, Eighth Congressional District

Rep. Ann Wagner, Second Congressional District

Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, Third Congressional District

Montana

Rep. Greg Gianforte, at-large district

Nebraska

Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, First Congressional District

Rep. Adrian Smith, Third Congressional District

New Jersey

Rep. Jeff Van Drew, Second Congressional District

New York

Rep. Elise Stefanik, 21st Congressional District

Rep. Lee Zeldin, First Congressional District

North Carolina

Rep. Dan Bishop, Ninth Congressional District

Rep. Ted Budd, 13th Congressional District

Rep. Virginia Foxx, Fifth Congressional District

Rep. Richard Hudson, Eighth Congressional District

Rep. David Rouzer, Seventh Congressional District

Rep. Gregory Murphy, Third Congressional District

Ohio

Rep. Jim Jordan, Fourth Congressional District

Rep. Bob Gibbs, Seventh Congressional District

Rep. Bill Johnson, Sixth Congressional District

Rep. Robert E. Latta, Fifth Congressional District

Rep. Brad Wenstrup, Second Congressional District

Oklahoma

Rep. Kevin Hern, First Congressional District

Rep. Markwayne Mullin, Second Congressional District

Pennsylvania

Rep. John Joyce, 13th Congressional District

Rep. Fred Keller, 12th Congressional District

Rep. Mike Kelly, 16th Congressional District

Rep. Dan Meuser, Ninth Congressional District

Rep. Scott Perry, 10th Congressional District

Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, 14th Congressional District

Rep. Glenn Thompson, 15th Congressional District

South Carolina

Rep. Jeff Duncan, Third Congressional District

Rep. Ralph Norman, Fifth Congressional District

Rep. Tom Rice, Seventh Congressional District

Rep. William Timmons, Fourth Congressional District

Rep. Joe Wilson, Second Congressional District

Tennessee

Rep. Tim Burchett, Second Congressional District

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, Third Congressional District

Rep. Mark Green, Seventh Congressional District

Rep. David Kustoff, Eighth Congressional District

Rep. John Rose, Sixth Congressional District

Rep. Scott DesJarlais, Fourth Congressional District

Texas

Rep. Dan Crenshaw, Second Congressional District

Rep. Kevin Brady, Eighth Congressional District

Rep. Michael Burgess, 26th Congressional District

Rep. Michael Cloud, 27th Congressional District

Rep. Mike Conaway, 11th Congressional District

Rep. Bill Flores, 17th Congressional District

Rep. Louie Gohmert, First Congressional District

Rep. Lance Gooden, Fifth Congressional District

Rep. Kenny Marchant, 24th Congressional District

Rep. Randy Weber, 14th Congressional District

Rep. Roger Williams, 25th Congressional District

Rep. Ron Wright, Sixth Congressional District

Rep. Jodey Arrington, 19th Congressional District

Rep. Brian Babin, 36th Congressional District

Virginia

Rep. Ben Cline, Sixth Congressional District

Rep. Rob Wittman, First Congressional District

Rep. H. Morgan Griffith, Ninth Congressional District

Washington

Rep. Dan Newhouse, Fourth Congressional District

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Fifth Congressional District

West Virginia

Rep. Carol Miller, Third Congressional District

Rep. Alex Mooney, Second Congressional District

Wisconsin

Rep. Tom Tiffany, Seventh Congressional District